1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to manufacturing floral sleeves, and more particularly, but not by way of limitation, to a method of manufacturing a plurality of floral sleeves with an ornamental design printed on only a portion of each floral sleeve.
2. Brief Description of the Related Art
Sleeves used for wrapping floral groupings and potted plants are well known in the art. Such sleeves are generally fabricated of a flexible sheet material and have an open upper end and an open or closed bottom end. The flexibility of the material permits the sleeves to be expanded into a frusto-conically shaped tube and to be flattened into a trapezoidally shaped configuration. Sleeves can be formed from a pair of webs, a single folded web, or a tubular web. Regardless of the form of the material used, overlapping portions are transversely sealed together to form a pair of sealed edges extending from the upper end of the sleeve to the bottom of the sleeve. To reduce waste, sleeves are formed so as to be inverted relative to the adjacent sleeves and so that adjacent sleeves share a common edge. The web is then cut along the sealed edges to form the sleeves.
In the manufacturing of sleeves, it is often desirable that the sleeve be provided with decorative designs or patterns on a lower portion of the sleeve while leaving the upper portion of the sleeve relatively unobstructed for viewing of the floral grouping through the sleeve. Problems have been encountered in the manufacture of sleeves with printed lower portions, however, in that the printed design is not printed uniformly about the entire lower portion of the sleeve. That is, an unprinted section or strip remains adjacent the sealed edge. Alternatively, the printed design on the lower portion overlaps onto the upper portion of the adjacent sleeve.
In an effort to overcome the above mentioned problems, U.S. Pat. No. 5,496,252, issued to Scott Robert Gilbert, discloses a method of forming a plurality of floral sleeves that do not have unprinted edges and which do not have printing overlap in the upper portion thereof. However, this method requires that a significant amount of material be wasted in that an amount of material for forming more than one half a sleeve every other sleeve formed is discarded.
To this end, a need exists for a method of forming a plurality of floral sleeves having a uniform design or pattern imprinted circumferentially thereabout without requiring the waste of significant portions of sheet material. It is to such a method that the present invention is directed.